u/Willing-Leather-9788

So according to my dad who was born in the 50s and was around some wise guys in his childhood (as everyone was back then) in the neighborhood of Yorkville (associates of the Genovese had a small crew up there), James McBratney was not involved in the kidnapping of Manny Gambino. Although he was part of the ring, my dad has said he’s heard from multiple old timers that McBratney was adamant he had nothing to do with Manny’s kidnapping, even though that group of mostly Irish-American gangsters (including John “Jackie” Kilcullen who my dad personally knew, and was from Yorkville) ran a kidnapping ring that he was part of.

So according to them, for whatever reason McBratney wasn’t involved in that one job. Is that true? But something else my dad said and the crux of my question, is that another guy in the crew, Henry Sentner, was also involved in the kidnapping. Now that name immediately made me think of Anthony Senter, who everyone knows, of course. I looked it up and AI says Henry was the uncle of Anthony, which lines up age wise. The last names are spelled slightly different but AI says that the family name was changed from “Senta” due to immigration and different family members subsequently went by “Senter” or “Sentner”. Now I don’t trust AI, so is this true? Was he the uncle? My dad says he doesn’t know. If he is, how could Anthony be working in a Gambino crew when his uncle was directly involved (Henry was one of the defendants convicted of his killing) in the boss of the family’s (Carlo Gambino) nephew’s death and kidnapping? I would assume the whole Senta family would be blacklisted by the Gambinos, even after Carlo’s death? Castellano who took over after was related to Gambinos so he had some family ties too. I know Paul didn’t like the DiMeo crew but still. Was Anthony just seen as independent of his uncle and he was allowed to prove himself as an associate? Did the Mafia generally not care too much about the wrongdoings of family members? Uncle and nephew isn’t as close as father and son but it still made me wonder.

Also, was Manny Gambino involved in staging his own kidnapping or is that untrue?

Just curious. No hate toward Tatis he’s a great player. But after his rookie year when he batted .317 with a .969 OPS I would’ve expected him to be hovering around .290/.900 for his career if I was accounting for the changes that made batting harder from 2021 onward (juiced balls gone, humidors, pitch clock, increased velo and break, etc). But then again he had his best year in 2021, the first year with no more juiced balls and new rules to help pitchers. Still, a -40 dip in OPS+ is massive and even with all the changes I’d have expected at least 135 after watching his first 3 years (especially 2021 but I know he was ROIDED out big time that year especially).

So how much did the PEDs help him compared to now? Or is it mostly the other factors I’ve mentioned that made hitting so much harder post 2020. Or the layoff? Assuming it’s a combination but what hurt most?

How many times did Philly go to OT that year? Bro literally played 80 games (every game of the season). So that’s 100% of every second his team played, he was on the floor. Is this the only time that’s ever happened? Did the team even have a backup center, even if he literally played zero seconds? I don’t see one listed on BKREF.

50 PPG is crazy enough but the fact he played 48.5 MPG when there’s only 48 minutes in a regulation game is something that never even occurred to me. Was he actually on the floor every second of every game Philly played that year?

I think 50 PPG/4000 points may still be the wilder stat since no one else had even 40 PPG (accept him in 1963) and only Jordan had more than 3000. But it’s harder to wrap my brain around 48.5 MPG/all 80 games. Especially when superstars in their prime play 32-36 MPG nowadays.

Post Integration. Question pretty much sums it up. Not worst batter, just worst overall player.

55 players have batted .300 for their career post Integration with at least 3,000 plate appearances.

The list is:

Ted Williams — .344
Tony Gwynn — .338
Stan Musial — .331
Wade Boggs — .328
Rod Carew — .328
Kirby Puckett — .318
Vladimir Guerrero — .318
Roberto Clemente — .317
Luis Arraez — .317
Todd Helton — .316
Jackie Robinson — .313
Nomar Garciaparra — .313
Larry Walker — .313
Dale Mitchell — .312
Manny Ramirez — .312
Edgar Martínez — .312
Ichiro Suzuki — .311
Derek Jeter — .310
Magglio Ordóñez — .309
Mike Piazza — .308
Don Mattingly — .307
Matty Alou — .307
Johnny Pesky — .307
Miguel Cabrera — .307
Joe Mauer — .306
Paul Molitor — .306
Ralph Garr — .306
Henry Aaron — .305
George Brett — .305
Rusty Greer — .305
Bill Madlock — .305
Hal Morris — .304
Tony Oliva — .304
Manny Mota — .304
Will Clark — .303
Chipper Jones — .303
Moisés Alou — .303
Mark Grace — .303
Al Oliver — .303
Pete Rose — .303
Mike Greenwell — .303
Harvey Kuenn — .303
Sean Casey — .302
Buster Posey — .302
Willie Mays — .301
Frank Thomas — .301
Robinson Canó — .301
Yordan Alvarez — .300
Roberto Alomar — .300
José Altuve — .300
John Kruk — .300
Pedro Guerrero — .300
Freddie Freeman — .300
Michael Young — .300
Billy Goodman — .300

For some of these guys like Teddy and Stan, their BA is listed as their career number, but they played some before Integration. Didn’t have time to calculate that. Ted post integration hit .340, so still higher than Tony.

The only name I didn’t recognize right off the bat was Hal Morris. He has a 14 WAR and -0.5 WAA in 4K at bats.

In his first 2 years from 1963 to 1964, he had -1.1 WAA, but didn’t produce a negative year for the next 15 seasons racking up 43.7 and a 2.9 average (5.1 WAR average).

Then in his twilight years Rose amasses -13.5 WAA over 7 seasons. By then he was in his 40s playing a bad first base with little baserunning and batting ability compared to his 60s/70s self.

In the 1981 strike year Rose led the league in hits with a .325 average but only had 0.2 WAA (only year in that stretch with a positive WAA) due to poor defense/range and zero homers.

He pretty much always had a respectable OBP in those years but any semblance of power and base running was gone, in addition to being a big negative in the field.

I’m pretty sure his 50.5 difference between 29.1 WAA and 79.6 WAR is the biggest discrepancy between those two stats by far (by percent)

I knew Trout didn’t get a lot of RBI for an all time great hitter, but this was surprisingly low. And it’s not like he hits lower with RISP. He bats .295 with RISP and has a career .291 average. And produced a good amount of doubles and especially triples in his career.

I’m assuming this is because the Angels offense has been bad from the 2010s to now. His whole career lol, but especially in the 2020s, which is when his RBI numbers lessened even more per hits & homers. How bad were they though over his career, I know below average but I’m seeing a lot of higher OPS+ years for the team than I expected.

Paul O’Neill on the Yankees used to get 170 hits and 20 homers with 110 RBI lol.

Even with the Angels being bad , 170 hits close to 40 homers and you’re still not breaking 100 RBI is crazy. With a near 300 avg and lots of other XBH with a better average in RISP, what’s the reason?

Is terrible baserunning by the Angels is a factor?

At this point the voters are going to get fatigue for 2nd place soon lol. He’s been runner-up to Joel in 2024 and SGA the last 2 years.

In your eyes, did Jokic get too many, too little, or just the right amount of MVPs?

From 1944 to 1945, which took place during the closing years of WWII, George Henry Stirnweiss aka “Snuffy” (allegedly given the nickname by a teammate because of his heavy tobacco use) put together 2 crazy back to back years. The league was a bit watered down but he still led in 10+ major categories in 1945 and a lot in 1944. 8-9 WAR both years. Led AL in hits, runs, WAR, stolen bases, triples, and plate appearances in both years. He remains the only player in history to lead the league in all these categories the same year: BA, OBP, SLG, stolen bases, triples, hits, OPS+, and total bases (1945). As well as at-bats, and plate appearances

Shows how the war affected baseball. Still incredible years averaging 8.7 WAR

As a Yankee, Snuffy doesn’t come up because there are so many other greats. He won three rings with the team from 1943-49, leaving the Bronx in mid 1950.

Snuffy is one of those nicknames bestowed that becomes your actual name. It doesn’t happen anymore but back then it was occasional.

Dr J is the New York GOAT, meaning out of players who played for a NYC/state franchise and what they accomplished with the team. Doesn’t have to be a player from New York (aka hometown), although Erving was from Long Island, NY.

The Doctor dominated the most competitive years of the ABA right before the merger while in New York, and the league was only a sliver behind the NBA in terms of talent. And is in everyone’s top 15-20 (should probably be higher).

In his short but legendary 3 year NY career with the New York Nets (Fak Jerseyyy), Erving won THREE STRAIGHT ABA MVPS, and 2 scoring titles. He averaged 28-11-5-2-2 on 51% FG in the regular season and 31-11-5-2-2 on 52% FG in the playoffs, bringing NY 2 titles. Hands down the best ABA player ever too (his first 2 years with the Virginia Squires were MVP level as well).

His performance against the Denver Nuggets in the 1976 ABA Finals is one of the greatest basketball championship performances ever. Keep in mind this Denver team had 3 HOF players who were all-stars in the NBA. He averaged 38-14-5 on 59% FG winning in 6.

This was against a team led by David Thompson (Top 3 in NBA MVP voting, 4x NBA all star), Dan Issel (averaged 20+ PPG in the NBA for a decade), and Bobby Jones (one of the best defenders in NBA history, 9x all defensive NBA first team, 4x NBA AS, NBA 6MOY). “Not no scrubs” lol.

For anyone who was around then or is close to someone who was a big NYC basketball fan in the 70s, what was it like to win those 4 championships (Knicks 2 in NBA and Nets 2 in ABA) in a 7 year period (1970-76)?

Crazy to me as a New York basketball fan how good my dad’s generation had it as kids, as well as his father’s. Especially compared to the last 50 years. New York never came close to dominating basketball like the Celtics or Lakers, but I’d say 6 titles in 26 years is very good:

1951: Rochester Royals (NBA)
1955: Syracuse Nationals (NBA)
1970: New York Knicks (NBA)
1973: New York Knicks (NBA)
1974: New York Nets (ABA)
1976: New York Nets (ABA)

4 titles for NYC teams in a 7 year span is great (even if it was in two leagues). The 1970s were easily New York’s best basketball era. Those Knicks were special as everyone knows, but people really forget how big it was having Dr. J in New York. He is one of the all time greats, and by far the greatest New York basketball player of all time. The ABA was only a sliver behind the NBA, and Dr. J dominated its most competitive era (the years directly before the merger), winning the last ABA title.

New York State teams made the NBA Finals SIX years in a row from 1950 to 1955, winning 2, including the only NYC vs. NYC matchup in a professional basketball championship series - between the Rochester Royals and New York Knicks in 1951. The Knicks did lose 3 finals in a row from 1951 to 1953. From 1951 to 1976, New York teams made the Finals 12 times. There was a 14 year drought in titles and finals appearances from 1956 to 1970, when the Knicks won their first championship.

Compare all that to one title in half a century... My uncle is 55 and just witnessed his first New York championship that he can remember. Words cannot express how happy I am that the Knicks finally won.

Before 2026, we had reached the NBA Finals 2x since our last professional basketball title (1994, 1999). The Nets reached the Finals in back-to-back years in 2002 and 2003 when they were the New Jersey Nets.

Kings - 76 years (1951-present)
Hawks - 66 years (1961-present)
Clippers - 56 years (1971-present)
Bucks - 47 years (1974-2021)
Wizards - 47 years (1980-present)
Nuggets - 46 years (1977-2023)
Warriors - 40 years (1975-2015)
Hornets - 38 years (1989-present)
Timberwolves - 37 years (1990-present)
Cavaliers - 36 years (1971-2007)

Am I missing any droughts?

6 of the top 10 droughts all time are still active. In addition to the Clippers, Hornets, and Wizards Timberwolves, the Grizzlies and Pelicans have also never made an NBA Finals. Grizz are at 30 years and Pelicans at 24.

It’s pretty crazy that for 70 years of basketball, no two teams met in the finals more than two consecutive times, then all of a sudden the Warriors and Cavs proceed to meet 4 times.

Prior to the Cavs/Warriors, NBA finals rematches in back-to-back years had happened 13 times, with none reaching a pivotal third matchup. We haven’t had consecutive Finals matchups since the Cavs and Warriors. Only 2 teams (Celtics and Heat) have appeared in the Finals more than once since then in 2018. There also hasn’t been a repeat champion since 2018, which is the longest in history by several years.

Looking back, I would’ve expected the Celtics and Lakers to have faced each other at least 3 years in a row at some point. Somehow it never happened even with the two teams meeting 6 times in 8 years from 1962 to 1969. In that time, Boston defeated LA in 3 different sets of back-to-back finals matchups (62-63, 65-66, 68-69).

The St. Louis Hawks and Celtics faced off in 4 Finals in 5 years from 1962 to 1966, split in two by a 1964 when only Boston reached the Finals.

The Lakers went to 4 consecutive finals from 1982 to 1985, splitting back-to-back Finals with both the 76ers and C’s. LA and Boston came close again in the 21st century when they faced each other in 2008 and 2010, with only the Lakers making the Finals in 2009.

Definition of a green light. On first base (either a walk or a single pretty much), he was going a CRAZY 70% of the time he was there.

He makes Rickey’s base stealing numbers, in terms of times on base/plate appearances, seem dwarfed.

Good/great hitters get on base. They have more optimal chances to steal on average just being on base more compared to someone like Coleman.

Rickey is definitely the GOAT baserunner and base stealer, but I think it’s worth to note how much harder it is to steal bases with a .320 OBP compared to .400.

The Bulls won just 30 games in a season 22 y/o MJ played just 18 regular games. A broken left foot kept him out. Many doctors even said “he would never be the same.” I guess how my dad explains it, is even though he got swept, he cemented himself as a star and someone who needed a real team around him. I just can’t believe he lost all 3 games. Larry and Boston were just that nice. Was a young Jordan lacking anything in specific or was it playing the best one man basketball of all time just wasn’t enough to beat such a godly team. Like the Logo, Jerry West (who pops says is the greatest player to ever walk the earth, lol).

The Legend of course said of Jordan after beating him in the ‘86 playoffs upon Mike’s early return:

“That wasn't Michael Jordan out there. That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” He had just scored 63 points, the all time playoff record, away, losing. Holds the record to this day for most points in a playoff game.